Social responsibility and policy are key issues in strategic management because they provide a guiding north star for a firm to create values and social views that will guide their daily business activities and ethics. In today’s world, there is a big emphasis on big companies doing the right thing, getting involved in the local community, and providing a healthy environment for employees to interact in. There’s been many instances where companies have lost their customer base due to unethical activities that lead to societal damages. Within the strategic aspect of things, social responsibility allows companies to retain customers, attract and retain the best available talent, improve reputation for the company, and helps to build a good image for the company overall.

Nike relies very heavily on their international network of manufacturing shops which over the years have led to many instances of them being accused of unethical activities such as child labor, extreme low wages, bad working facilities. There have also been many accusations of sexual harassment instances in their North American market. This means that as a group we will need to introduce recommendations to implement pretty aggressive social responsibility and policy changes. We will need to create and establish oversight groups to check on the unethical that have taken place and take action to eliminate them. Additionally, Nike will need to get a lot more involved in the international communities they are located in by giving back to them and building charitable groups to assist address these gaps. A program for Diversity and inclusion training is needed to be implemented, to provide employees with do’s and don’ts in order to avoid questionable scenarios that can lead to racial or sexual harassment instances. These are the steps we would recommend implementing for our CLC company in order to improve their policies and social responsibility.

Successful local country businesses typically make the decisions to take their product or services to other countries in order to continue to grow their business and offering. This is not always the easiest thing to do as there are many tangibles that companies can face during the process of introducing their business and while they have been already established. Culture differences are a huge part of taking your business globally, if the product does not match the culture or it’s not understood by them then it will not be successful. One big consideration that doesn’t always take place, is the introduction of local communities’ programs to support the community where the firm is establishing themselves. This can go a long way with the local culture and can really drive real positive change for the community. Firms also have to ensure that their product/services translate into what the local culture knows, does the product make sense, is it offensive?, does it translate to something they need? These are all questions the firm should ask themselves.

There are also legal regulatory barriers that have to be kept in mind while doing business in foreign markets. The U.S is one of the friendliest places to do business in as even though there are a lot of rules, it is relatively easy to get a business established and started unlike many other countries where it can be very hard to open a company or sell a new product. Such difficulties can arise in trademark requirements, dispute resolution, import and export restrictions, and investment and business procedures to name a few.

Lastly, dealing with foreign countries and the risk associated with the currency they are dealing with can be another challenge. There is the possibility that a government might default or go under siege at which point the firm could lose its assets, this is why the sell insurance for these scenarios. Currency exchange rates are a great risk as they can be as unstable as the stock trading market which means the firm could lose revenue. These are just some of the things companies should consider when going international or global, it sounds pretty scary hence why there’s not many firms that have been able to do it successfully.